The White Engine
by Anotherjaneway
Summary: The gang tries out a prototype engine and they learn how faithful man's best friend really is at a house fire.


This is a text version of the original still airing imaged, music soundtracked story.

Emergency Theater Live, Episode Thirteen

13. The White Engine Season Two - Episode 13 Short summary-  
The gang tries out a prototype engine and they learn how faithful man's best friend really is at a house fire.

****WARNING**** The long summary to come is very story spoiling and will take away plot surprises if you read it now before reading the longer story below it.

Decide now if you want to read this episode's detailed summary before doing so.

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Long Summary-  
Chet Kelly gets neck deep into a new secret invention. Gage discovers a new fire engine in the backyard. But something's amiss. It's a pure white prototype that's being loaned to them to test out without any need for the accompanying squad and with plenty of space for Henry to ride along with them. They respond to a beach cliff house fire and tend to a burned senior with Craig Brice and his partner. Roy transports the old woman. Henry finds three kids stuck up a tree, trapped by smoke. After their rescue, Chet discovers Henry missing and goes searching. He finds Henry unconscious on a hillside from smoke. Cap orders the new engine to transport the kids to Rampart while Gage and Chet try to treat Henry in the cab. Brackett is Dixie-tricked into working with the vet from the county animal shelter, Barney Coolidge, to care for Henry inside a parked Mayfair ambulance.  
Chet demos his new invention, calling them shriek boxes. At a library fire,  
Craig Brice burns his hand on a hot doorknob and Chet's new devices save all of their lives when the ceiling comes down on top of them.

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The Story Unfolds...

Season Two, Episode Thirteen..

THE WHITE ENGINE Debut Launch: 1 August 2004.

*  
From : Cassidy Meyers Sent : Saturday, August 14, 2004 4:34 AM Subject : Like Kids in A Candy Store

Johnny Gage arrived to work, automatically buzzing himself through the fire station's side kitchen door, while unbuttoning his shirt. "Morning, Chet." he greeted.

Fireman Kelly didn't even look up from the collection of gadgets and bits of machinery strewn across newspapers on the table.  
"Hmmm.. " he said, closely joining together a wire and spring with a soldering iron. "Eat on a tray. I'm busy here. Touch nothing."

Gage skidded to a halt, naturally, to see what Chet was up to.  
"What's this?" he said, picking up a small black case fitted with a pressure dial.

"ah ahH AHH! Gimme that!" the curly haired fireman snapped defensively, snatching the homemade part out of Johnny's grip. He carefully placed it back into the order he had laid out before him.  
"Boy, you sure know how to listen to directions, Gage. Cap, I think you oughta send Johnny to Rampart. I don't think his ears are functioning." he complained.

Hank Stanley sniffed from where he was sipping coffee in the easy chair, his lap full of snoring Henry . "What else's new?  
Goes along with both of his feet, Kelly." Cap glared at Johnny, waving what he was really reading on top of the stocks section.  
"Your accident report for the week is already three pages long.  
Have you been getting more sleep like I ordered ya to?"

Gage forgot his curiosity over Kelly's impromptu project and frowned right back. "Yeah, Cap. Plenty.. I. "

"And how about remembering to take those multi vitamins Dr. Early suggested we all start taking." Hank added.

"As if I'd forget. Roy left a note on my bathroom mirror a foot wide, reminding me about em." Johnny snorted under his breath.

"Good. Now eat. Stoker brought in danishes for breakfast. They're over there on the counter." Stanley said, lifting the paper up in front of his face to end the conversation.

"Danishes? Roy loves danishes. And there's a cheese one left."  
Gage interjected as he chewed a raspberry one loudly. "How come he hasn't taken it yet before Lopez does?"

"He's busy.." Chet Kelly answered, penning some molten soldering onto his tiny invention. A plume of bluish smoke rose up and started off the fire detector on the ceiling. "Oops!" Kelly shot up and stood in his chair while he pulled the lid off to silence the alarm.

Stoker came pelting in with the fire extinguisher from the vehicle bay.

Kelly didn't even look up from his work. "Now there's a set of tightly bundled reflexes. Gage, you can learn from him."

"What?" Stoker asked. "Where's the fire?"

"False alarm, Stoker. Everything's fine.." Cap said from the chair, still buried in his paper.

"Oh..." Mike gaped. Then his expression fell into one of irritation that matched Gage's when he found out the reason for the noise.  
"I thought Chet fried some snow skiis again or something."

"Very funny.." Kelly told him. "Nah, what I got here is going to revolutionize the entire fire department, Stoker. It came to me during last Thursday's fire."

"You mean at the factory where we all got a chest full of smoke for nothing after rescuing Moreno's abandoned turnout jacket when we thought he was trapped in there?" Gage supplied.

"That's the one. Too bad that almost perfect recall doesn't work so well with the rest of ya." Chet quipped, pointing his steaming pen at Johnny in emphasis.

"Speak for yourself. You got Cap here so conditioned to your continually setting off the fire detectors here, that he doesn't even blink any more."

"Wrong Gage. I blinked. I just chose not to react." Hank grumbled.  
"Stoker leave that extinguisher where Chet can reach it.  
Then you can go back to studying up."

"Right Cap." and Mike left the kitchen with two danishes.

"Hey, Stoker. Leave the cheese one for Roy!" Johnny admonished.

"I'm bringing it to him out back. Wanna come along?"

"You mean he's not in the locker room poring over the horse racing column?"

"Nope." Mike Stoker said through a cheekful of pastry.

"What's he doing that's so important that he's forgetting his breakfast?" Gage asked the station engineer.

Stoker said nothing and just motioned to Johnny to follow him.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first thing Gage noticed was the gaping space yawning floor to ceiling in the bay. It made the squad seem very small.  
"Where's the Ward at?"

"In the shop. She needed a new water tank. It was rusting out."  
Stoker said, picking up a basket ball and shooting it into the hoop above the shower room doorframe.

Johnny glanced over at the speaker grill and saw the glowing ready light pulsing there on active mode. "We're on active duty?  
How can we be with no engine handy to take out on calls?"

Mike Stoker just flung the basket ball over to the open door garage button leading out into the backyard, activating it.

The screeching massive slats retracted revealing a blinding white light. Johnny's mouth fell open. "What the h*ll is that?"

"Our loaner." Stoker said with a grin. "Roy's at the back panel learning how to work all the new gadgetry." He couldn't help but show all of his teeth like a kid in the candy store. "Isn't she beautiful?"

Johnny followed Stoker dumbly out into the morning sunlight with the berry danish in between his teeth, remaining unchewed.

Stoker gave a running account of what he had discovered since coming to work. "Meet the "Ambassador" Ward LaFrance 1000.  
She's got a six cylinder Cummins Diesel engine with an automatic transmission, a 2000 GPM two stage Hale Class Water Pump with a 500 Gallon capacity reservoir. And get a load of this, this baby's got a IDLH atmosphere attacking repetoire consisting of a FOUR inch diameter hose- 500 feet in length, a 2 1/2" at a 1,000'. Plus an 1 3/4" topping 450' ! Awesome killing power."

"But..but..but...." Gage sputtered.

Mike didn't hear him. He was too deep into his stint of fire truck admiration to pay him any heed. " ...Did I tell you that she can seat all six of us, including all of your medical gear from the squad? The chief's already authorized duplicates. See?" and he popped open a shiny chrome door behind the engineer's cab which revealed everything in its proper place.

Gage slammed the door shut again.

"Hey, take it easy! Do you want to damage Ivory before she's even broken in?" Stoker said, protectively rubbing off Gage's fingermarks with the chamois that miraculously appeared from his back pocket. "We've got the honor of being the first station to get her off the assembly line you know."

"Ivory? This ugly thing of an engine's got a name already?" John asked incredulously.

"Sure, why not? Our regular Ward's got one.." Marco Lopez said from on top of the huge truck, startling Johnny. He was seated in the chrome sprayer chair,  
testing out the still dry cannon.

"But.. but... but... she's......*ugh*... a white fire engine.  
When I signed up for the department I was counting on serving the kind of engine I always saw all the other guys working on. An honest to goodness fire engine that was RED colored, not.. this, this frosty kind! You need a pair of sunglasses handy to get anywhere near her here."  
he said, wiping his eyes free of bright light tears.

"Got 'em..." Hank grinned, joining his men outside, pulling out a pair from his uniform shirt. "Here's yours, Gage."  
and he tossed them to his flustered paramedic.  
"Roy's already got his."

Johnny's disgust only grew when Stoker, Marco and Cap all shoved on the beach lifeguard mirror shades before they climbed aboard. Gage's list of grievances only grew and the others patiently let him vent until he was done.  
"So how long are we gonna be stuck with her?" Johnny said in the end with his hands on his hips.

"Don't know. Chief says could be a week, or three.." Hank smiled, enjoying Johnny's shock and dismay. "I told Charlie to take his time with Ol Red. He couldn't blame me. Ivory here's state of the art and he trusted no one else but Stoker to be her test driver."

Mike Stoker was suddenly rivetted with repolishing his new intricate engineer's panel. "Hey Roy.." and he whistled in his teeth. "Breakfast!" and he launched the covetted cheese danish high into the air to free up his other hand.

"Stoker! What are ya doing?" Johnny yelled. "For crying out----! "

A deep hum of moving parts and gears suddenly kicked on and a part of the engine that was almost invisible because of the snow white paint suddenly .. unfolded.

Mike Stoker drew near Johnny's elbow, chewing. "Did I tell you that we are now the proud loaners of a genuine 84 foot Addison extension ladder too?"

It was Gage's turn to start to drool. All of his earlier complaints and carrying on, melted like sugar under water. "Oh, boy. An Addison.."

A hand shot up from the basket of the rising ladder sections and caught the danish neatly.

"Nice catch, Roy." Cap shouted up. " I'd say you got the controls on that thing mastered. Now come down. It's Johnny's turn. He's the last to get to play ladderman." Hank ordered, walking back into the station to finish his interrupted stocks column.

"Do you forgive her color now, Johnny?" Roy grinned,  
setting the ladder into neutral as the gears glided down across Ivory's back. The basket nestled snugly behind the passenger cab.

Johnny was speechless and he dropped his danish to Henry who suddenly knew to be there and flashed over to the back control alcove. "Yeah,.. I'll forgive her.  
Wow.. Is it really my turn?"

"There goes those problems with the ears again..."  
Chet Kelly said, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"You heard the Cap." Marco said. "Take her up."

Gage bubbled as he helped Roy down from the scoop stand. "How do I operate this? Quick, Stoker. Help me out."

"It's simple. Just think stick shift. Forward for up. Back for down. Left and right for side to side. Nothing to it." Mike said laughing. "Try to touch the top of the hose tower with the basket. All of us got it up there in less than fifteen seconds."

"But that's sixy feet high at least.." Gage stammered.

"So?" Chet scoffed, grinning. "We've got 84 feet of vertical to monkey with. Go for it. I'm timing ya.. 3,.....2.....1.." and he studied his watch closely. "Mark when I say go.."

Gage shoved on the work gloves Roy handed him and grabbed the controls just as Kelly yelled "Go!"

The gang cheered Johnny on as he got used to the feel of the white fire engine's best feature. But then the call tones went off and Gage's concentration wavered.

The bottom of the rescue basket bumped the top of the hose tower and all the hoses hanging there were jolted off their hooks. Six of them sphagetti-d like noodles to the ground in noisy splats, making all of them duck.

"Oh, good going, Gage. Guess who gets to climb back up there to rehang all of those." Kelly said.

Johnny shot Kelly a sarcastic look. "I'll use the basket to redo em later."

Stoker was already in his overcoat, behind the wheel,  
sliding into his helmet.

Cap ran from the station bay with his on and he began shouting. "Let's move. Roy get that ladder down now. We roll in half a minute. Then it's you two, in the back. The squad stays behind. Chief's orders."

"What?" Johnny blurted, confused. "We're gonna need that if it's just a medical call."

"No we won't. From now on until the old Ward gets back.  
We're on every call, together. Kapesh?" Cap said in a no nonsense tone.

Johnny nodded leadenly.

"Great, now get in." Cap bellowed, jerking a thumb back behind him as he opened the sparkling new engine's door.

Gage started to beeline for the squad to get his jacket but Marco stopped him by flinging it and his helmet across his chest. "I took the liberty of moving yours when I did mine, Johnny. Here."

Johnny nodded an embarrassed thanks and slid dutifully beside Kelly in the spacious back cab. The yellow of their air bottles looked comical against the snowy metal.

##Station 51, Station 8, Truck 127. Structure fire. 1700 East Beckner Avenue. Cross street Caine. 1700 East Beckner Avenue. Cross street Caine. Time out, 07:06.##

Cap thumbed the radio mic, "L.A., 10-4. Engine 51-A is responding.  
We're KMG 365." And he released the talk button. "Let's get the show on the road gang. Sounds like a bad one. That block's right on the marina.." Hank got in next to Mike on the passenger's side but his door lingered open a little longer while the rescue call directions were broadcast. He reached down to grab Henry's loose scruff as he hauled him aboard.  
"Isn't this great? We finally got enough room for him.  
Now he can be a proper fire dog.." Cap chuckled.  
"Ok, Stoker. Move it out. Go through the garage and then punch the auto down once we're on the boulevard."

"Wait a minute. Where's Roy?" Johnny startled. "He didn't follow us inside the cab."

"Course not." yelled Kelly gleefully. "Somebody's gotta steer our back end. For today, Roy's designated wheel man!"

Johnny's face finally fell into another smile, one of jealousy as the news sunk in. "A wheel man. Just like I used to dream about when I was a kid."

"Well, now you get to indulge yourself Gage. We all do.  
Just like the big boys in the city.. Wah..HoOOooooo!"  
Chet shouted at the top of his lungs.

Henry the basset, in between Caps knees, barked like a mad thing in excitement at finally being able to follow his humans to whereever they were going.

"Wow, would you look at that?" Marco shouted, adjusting his helmet over the noise of the powerful engine and shrill triple tone and whistle siren. "Henry's a puppy again.  
He's acting like he's years younger." he celebrated.

The white engine roared down the freeway top speed. Her shockingly bright non color was scattering the traffic out of her way like harried chickens long before the siren's wail ever got there.

Gage smiled, noticing. "Maybe there IS something in painting a fire truck white."

"Not to my way of thinking, Gage." Kelly said, overhearing. "You're forgetting how much the dirt is going to show up on Ivory's flanks when we're through.  
Stoker's gonna keep us busy buffing and polishing her up for hours."

Johnny's happy little boy look faded into a look of horror.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Photo : Station 51's backyard.

Photo: Johnny in an empty, open vehicle bay.

Photo: A white fire engine, front side out.

Photo: A ladder going up on a Ward.

Photo: The ladder's rear truck controls.

Photo: Johnny talking with Roy outside.

Photo: A warehouse fire, full blown at night.

Photo: Cap with Henry on the couch.

*  
From: "Cory Anda" Date: Mon Aug 16, 2004 5:55 pm Subject: Other Things Are White, Too Stoker had no problem finding the fire. The tang of salt from the ocean was mixed with the bitter smell of tricolored smoke that was the signature of a spanish beach stucco and tile house fire. The burning plume of ash was wafting over the pacific coast highway, making traffic slow as gapers rubbernecked the stilted house perched on the clifftop.

Cap gestured, "Stoker, can you get us through on the margin?"

"Yep." and Mike hauled the large wheel around until they had by passed the driving gawkers. The airhorn he used every hundred feet elicted cheers each time he used it. All the people stuck in the morning and fire traffic did this as they passed in the usual California motorist reaction to seeing an emergency vehicle moving on through.

In the back, highly visible to all, Roy restrained himself and tried not to wave back.

Hank was relieved to find that he wasn't the first one on the scene.

Captain Ben Stone's Station Eight crew was there, already milling about in the scrub surrounding the house for the water hydrant pipe.

"L.A., Station 51's on scene. We'll be attacking from the northern exposure."  
Stanley made his arrival known.

##10-4, 51. An ambulance has been dispatched to your location. ETA nine minutes.## came the dispatcher's reply.

"Copy, L.A. 51, out." Cap replied, collapsing down his walkie talkie antennae as he stepped from the engine's cab. He was about to slam the door shut when a deep woof arrested him. Henry dropped his heavy bulk to the smoky street and he immediately ambled over to a wide place on the grass where he sat himself down by a eucalyptus tree, to begin intently watching the fire.

Ben Stone noticed, in between shouted attack orders issued to his men. "Oh, so you've only just managed to spring your resident couch potato off his perch for this one?" he teased Hank. "It's been what? Three years since he showed up for dinner?"

Captain Stanley shouted to get Roy's attention. "DeSoto! Ladder up! Unmanned bucket. We'll use the auto cannon to cover the roof. Then get down and set up fire standby medical gear."

"You got it, Cap." Roy answered, waving a glove.

Then Cap answered Ben. "Sure. Why not? You can see how he's enjoying himself."

"That I can." smiled the big dark skinned captain immensely.

Gage motored on by at a run, when he saw Squad 8's compartment doors wide open which was a universal sign that a victim had been found and was being treated.

Johnny crouched by Craig Brice and Bob Bellingham who were both struggling to offer a flowing demand valve 02 mask to an old lady covered with burns.  
She was sitting upright and supported in Bob's arms to make her breathing easier.

"Now, maam. You'll feel a whole lot better if you breathe some of this in.." Bob urged, pulling the tiny woman's arms down as she tried to push away the mask in her fight to get air into her lungs.

Craig Brice nodded, getting out a blood pressure cuff to take a vitals set on her. "Please, hold still. I know those leg burns are painful. We're trying to help you."

The woman in the paisley dress and white knit sweater ignored him,  
choking and coughing louder and she fought them with all of her small frame's strength.

Johnny gripped her arms and tried some charm which didn't work.  
"Maam. It's ok. You're out of the fire. Don't worry about the house.  
We're gonna knock it down. " The lady's distressed eyes caught Johnny's eyes desperately and she only moaned louder again turning her face away from the mask as she gasped from smoke inhalation.

"What's the matter? Easy. Just calm down." Gage asked her."We're trying to understand ya. But first breathe some of this in. It'll get rid of that shortness of breath you got. I promise you that."

The tiny old lady yelled louder, pleading something of him in mumbling words that he didn't understand.

Her verbal shouts caught Marco's ear as he dragged down hose from the white engine's hose bed. He tossed down his looping armful to the lawn and he pulled off his work gloves. "Chet take over. I gotta check out that victim over there. I think she's speaking spanish."

"Ok." Kelly said, picking up the uncharged water line while running to the middle of the front yard.

Marco let Cap know with a hand signal what he was up to.  
Hank nodded. Then he ran over to Squad Eight's flank.

Lopez tapped Brice's shoulder. "Let me try. She's frightened about something. Maybe I can find out what it is. I don't think she knows any english." And he spoke to her urgently with rapid questions in Spanish.

Paying attention, Henry started to bark and howl jogging up to the firemen. After sniffing the woman's skirts once, and he began staring at the house, then back at the woman nervously.

"Uh oh.. " said Cap, catching on at once. "I hope that reaction from him doesn't mean what I think it means."

The white haired lady began to sob, hanging onto Marco desperately and she spoke the first comprehensible words to him, in relief that someone finally could talk with her. After a short exchange, Lopez looked up at Cap. "It's ok, she's not fussing over anyone else who might still be in the house. She's worried about her cat."

Cap relaxed his tense crouch with a sympathetic smile for show. "Tell her we'll do everything we can, Marco. Go ahead and ask her where she last saw it." he encouraged.

Marco got the information. "Back bedroom, on the ocean side,  
the room above the swimming pool, second floor. A three year old tan tabby." and he went back to soothing the woman and soon, he got her to accept breathing in the pure oxygen being offered by paramedics' hands. "You need me yet?" he asked Cap, looking up from the frightened woman's face.

"Nah, stay with her. Brice and Bellingham may need you to be an interpreter before she gets too shocky to talk. We're fine for now. Kelly, did you hear that about making that room a priority point?!" Hank relayed in a shout.

"Yep. I just radioed Roy on our band to hit that side of the house with the cannon!" Chet replied, gesturing to Mike Stoker that he was ready for his hose to be fully charged. Two from Station Eight's crew joined Kelly on his newly stretched line.

DeSoto diverted the bucket until it hung above the house out of flame range and he diverted the cannon nozzle's powerful water stream until it connected with the second floor's veranda window. Glass immediately shattered on impact and the fire glowing space within started to hiss clouds of steam as it started to be smothered by water.

"Hold it right there, Roy. You're in position. Lock her down, pal." Hank shouted.  
"Go help Gage, ok? Looks like they've a victim needing an extra pair of hands. I've already got eight's and one twenty seven covering the other three sides."

Roy waved and nodded, and froze the ladder maneuvering controls. Soon he was at Johnny's side in listening mode.

"Dona Arana. Nosotros estas a ayudar mirar por su gato. Shhh." Lopez soothed as he clutched the old woman's hand tightly as she writhed in Bob's arms due to her severe pain.

"Go ahead and get those burn packs on, Bob. Brice's got his hands full on the biophone. I'll take over keeping her elevated for ya." Johnny offered,  
taking over holding the oxygen valve over the restless woman's nose and mouth as she fought to breathe without coughing.

Roy grabbed a two liter saline bag and helped Bellingham pour the solution over sterile sheets Brice had laid over the woman's charred legs, as fast as he could. He knew that its relief would only be temporary. "Does Craig have his order for some MS yet?"

Bob shook his head minutely as he worked.

DeSoto sighed. "Must be a busy day at Rampart..." he speculated. "My goodness." he complained. "What's the hold up?"

"Craig's got a new doctor on the line. Someone covering for Joe Early. He's sure taking his time mulling over our signs and symptoms on her."

Quite suddenly, the old woman pitched over with a groan, going limp.

"I got her.." Johnny said, catching her head and neck and lowering her to the ground carefully preserving an open airway. He began to get fuller breaths of 02 into the woman's bubbling chest and her color immediately improved. "She's ok. I've still got a good pulse."

"Now there's our wish for mercy being granted." Bob confided in DeSoto. "I was waiting forher to black out. Hand me those shears, Roy. I'll get her ready for the EKG leads."

Roy reached into the trauma kit and found them.

Brice was getting miffed, his cool crumbling visibly to the others.  
"Rampart, this is a repeat of our victim's LOC. Unconscious, and yes, with a gag reflex. Request permission to insert a nasopharyngeal airway. Marked pulmonary edema is most definitely evident.." he hinted with beginning irritation to a young sounding unfamiliar male resident on the hospital line. Craig's head jerked up and down and his hand swept round in some "oh come on" circles in the air as he mentally encouraged the man on on the other end of the biophone to hustle it up.

Johnny, losing patience next to Brice, broke some rules and intubated her anyway after gelling the tube.

Brice startled, covering the phone receiver. He said, "Gage, that's not regulation..!" he hissed.

"Neither's delaying life saving treatment. We'll say her throat was swelling up if we have to." he remarked, checking the placement of the tube in the woman's sooty nostril. "Just hang up on that jerk.  
Make it sound like we've hit a communications failure or something.  
Happens all the time this close to the beach. We've got all our critical orders already. Her IVs, burn irrigation, and that atropine to boost her respirations. Roy, did you hear the doc say go ahead?"

"I sure did. He grunted. Clearly."

"There you go, Craig. And I know you're with us on this wholeheartedly. It'll be our experienced three against his very youthful one." Johnny said, pointing a finger at the shoulder buried phone receiver in emphasis.

On cue, the woman's breathing grew striderous and noisy, but working, because of the presence of the NP.

Brice gaped like a fish but finally he said, "Rampart, you're breaking up.." as he dropped the phone into the box and pulled out the radio antennae. He looked up a little stunned. "I just may be in significant trouble now for doing that I'll have you know."

"I doubt that." Gage said. "Do you see the captains looking this way right now?"

"Hank did. For a moment." Craig admitted, swabbing the old lady's arm with alcohol. "He knows what we did."

"Course he knows. He saw us save her airway. He won't say anything if we don't. Welcome to our world of little white lies, Craig. Sometimes you gotta do what you have to do." Johnny said, stone faced as he kept on delivering careful oxygenated ventilations through the demand valve to help the woman out.

Bob Bellingham smiled and took the Normal Saline 1000 ml IV bag from Craig's numb hands. "I'll take that, Brice. Thanks guys. Craig would've never allowed me to do that kind of stunt myself. Not in a million years."

Craig was still unconvinced.

So Roy reiterated. "Brackett'll back us up after he hears the transcript without question. That doc was dangerously slow. And that'll show on the recording."

"I supposed you're right." Craig finally replied, rubbing the sweat and dirt off the woman's skin with some gauze to be able apply the heart monitor patches.

"Now there's a first.." Gage teased. "I thought I'd never hear the day when paramedic Craig Brice sided with someone who wasn't following the book to the letter."

"I am capable of making amendments when somebody's life's on the line."  
Brice protested mildly.

"I know. I saw you save my crewmates last year when that warehouse ceiling caved in on them." Johnny smiled. "Thanks for that. I don't think I ever properly expressed my gratitude back then."

"You did." Brice grinned.

"I did?" Johnny asked in surprise.

Roy mouthed silently. "I sent him a card on your behalf." and he pantomimed a square in the air with two fingers. He quickly busied himself with adjusting the IV. flow when Craig looked up.

Johnny gushed in a neat cover.  
"Oh, that's right. I forgot about that card. Heh. Must've slipped my mind.  
I was still recovering in the hospital from my own mishap. That time was for my leg, I think. Sorry I didn't recall it sooner, Brice."

"Quite all right, Gage. I'll forgive you for being forgetful if you forget the ...er deceitful atrocity that I just committed with our medical director today."

"Deal." Gage said enthusiatically, but then he thought about the word atrocity some more and fixed Roy with a puzzled stare. "Atrocity?" he mouthed back at Bob and DeSoto.

"To him it is.." Bob silently mouthed back, and Roy bobbled his head in agreement.

-  
Henry's frantic barking finally got Hank's attention. He knelt by the basset hound's side. "What is it, boy? What's got ya all excited?"

Henry suddenly took off out of Captain Stanley's grip and loped high speed around the burning house and up into the hillside brush beyond.

"Henry! Get back here ya crazy mutt." Cap shouted, starting to run after him. But then he stopped in his tracks, rubbing his nose. Hank decided to delegate a solution before any other station crew noticed the new embarrassing development. ::At least he's not at risk from the fire up there:  
he hoped.

Chet Kelly answered Cap's private band hail. "Go ahead for Kelly."

##Chet. Henry's taken off up the hill above the house. Go after him.  
Make it look like you're just laying spray to protect against a brush burn ignition from the house.##

"Got it, Cap." Kelly said. He craftily directed his hose team to follow him while he cased the rough scrub for Henry's familiar brown and white hide. "Just a little bit farther fellas, the grass is real dry here." he remarked. "Oh second thought. Let's just catch this whole side, ok, gang?"

No one on the team caught on to Kelly's impromptu search pattern for Henry and continued the sweep.

-  
Behind the burning house, the wind was picking up and Henry's sensitive nose was working full time as he paced along the ground.

He got about ten yards from the flaming structure immediately next to the swimming pool when...

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo : Fire behind a stucco beach house. Engine in driveway.

Photo : Chet on a hose closeup.

Photo: Johnny with the old woman who's burned.

Photo: Captain Stone of Engine Eight helping Johnny resuscitate someone.

Photo: Henry the basset, outside and pointing.

Photo: Brice Roy and Johnny all in dirty turnout.

Photo: Cap sitting in the engine cab in deep thought.

*********************************************************************

From: "patti keiper" Date: Thu Aug 26, 2004 4:11 pm Subject: Straight from the...

...Henry heard something.

His ears perked up, tracing frightened high pitched sounds that were laced with vocal distress. Barking furiously, Station 51's mascot lumbered heavily across the singed and burning ground, sneezing from the heavy smoke as he went closer to what had attracted his attention from the street.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Captain Stanley monitored his radio. He had sent Johnny Gage into the house with Mike Stoker from the aerial bucket to case the upper story for their woman victim's cat. She had come to, refusing to transport to Rampart by Mayfair until her tabby was accounted for, one way or the other, as Lopez had put it in translation.

Hank put Marco in charge of making sure the woman kept wearing her O2 as she watched the firefighters work. DeSoto had long since joined the perimeter teams in preventing a spread of the structure fire into the cliffside brush above and below the flaming beachhouse and had left the biophone near Lopez in case Brackett had more treatment to offer during their victim decided waiting delay.

Roy inwardly hoped that the senora would black out again because of the deep 2nd and 3rd degree burns on her lower calves, giving them an excuse to transport her in legally.

Captain Stanley reciprocated DeSoto's impatience, reading the expression on his older paramedic's face. "I know, you don't have to tell me, adrenaline's keeping the fiesty ol gal awake and that's why you're all still here."

"You hit the nail on the head, Cap." Roy sighed, watching the water pressure guages on the white engine cycle through as the teams inside the bungalow used their lines off and on to suppress the fire surrounding them inside the house. "Even Brice's no nonsense approach didn't work with her. Nor did Marco's natural Latin American male charms."

Hank sighed. "Go see what Chet's up to. I haven't heard from his team for four minutes."

"Still a minute early for checking in, Cap." Roy grinned, putting on his helmet.

"Call it an instinct. There's a reason why Henry rocketted out of here and into the backyard and I wanna know why. Go. I'll take over the pumps here for ya."

DeSoto needed no further encouragement, slipping on his SCBA mask as he circled the route he remembered the basset hound taking when he took off away from them.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Vicki. Jump! *cough* He's telling us to!" said a blond haired little boy from the high crook of the eucalyptus tree where he and his best friends had taken refuge when the Dona Arana's beach mansion had exploded.  
Now their safe haven was aflame on top and in the grass below.

Barely visible in the rising smoke, Henry the bassett kept on barking at the children far above him.

"I'm not jumping!" said the sports jerseyed seven year old girl. "I'll break something." the tiny child sobbed, her face soot streaked.

"We gotta do something or the smoke'll get us for sure! *choke* Stevie's asthma's already getting real bad.. Just use the climbing rope. I don't think those firemen on the hill see us yet for all our waving."

Henry was enveloped with smoke and he disappeared. But the children still heard him barking.

"Where do you think he came from?" Vicki said. "He's barking so mean."

"He's not mean. He's angry that we're still staying in the tree with the fire getting closer. I know that sound. That's what Apollo does when I climb up onto the garage roof when I'm not supposed to." said Christopher. "He's ok.  
He's just trying to tell us to get down from here."

Stevie's head drooped a little lower inside the fourth child's arms.  
Becky shouted to her three other friends. "His medicine's not working any more." the brown haired girl said, " I think it's because of all the smoke blowing up here."

Christopher made up his mind and he hung from his arms in mid air until his ankles gripped the rope hanging from their club tree's horizontal branch.  
"I'm going for help. Becky! Don't let him fall! Vicki, come with me!"

"I can't!" the tiny girl wailed.

"Yes, you can. I'll just bet this old hound dog'll let you pet him once you get down here. Now come on!" Chris yelled right back.

Terrified by the thickening smoke, Vicki scrambled like a monkey after her braver friend. "I'll be right back, Becky. Just keep Stevie warm as you can. Mom says that helps with sick people."

Becky wrapped her legs even tighter around the gasping boy's waist where they sat in the crook of the giant tree. Sparks rained down around them, alighting tiny fires on wind whipped limbs at their level. She screamed.

"Becky! We're all right! We're almost to the bot--" came Chris's voice from somewhere below under the thick blanket of smoke underneath them. But then the voice choked off as smoke stole his ability to speak and started a fit of desperate coughing.

The scared, following Vicki soon fell into the same breathing trouble.

"Stevie. Hang on. I got you.." Becky squeaked. "I promise we'll stay up here where the air's good. I won't let you fall."

Chris was blinded, he couldn't see. Smoke burned his throat and eyes to the point where he lost all sense of orientation.

Then he felt a grip of canine teeth take hold of his ankle. He smiled,  
gasping. "Vicki we're there! Let go! The hound's got my sock to show us where the ground is." Chris celebrated.

A burning branch smacked down from the tree above onto Henry's back and he yelped, letting go of the boy. Chris and Vicki fell to their knees and brushed the smoking embers off Henry's coat, then they began to crawl in the direction he led them, uphill.

They struggled to breathe but then they were out of the thick layer of smoke on a slope.

Henry began barking in earnest at something up hill.

It was a hose team.

Chet gladly ordered the others to drop the hose to intercept them,  
yelling over his radio. "HT 51 to Engine 51. Henry's led two children to my location directly east of the house." he said, pulling off his air mask to offer it to the smallest child who was unable to stand.  
"Both are suffering severe smoke inhalation."

##10-4. Two pediatric fire victims. Meeting you on the fly!## came Hank's radioed reply. ##Brice and Bellingham are with me.##

Another fireman scooped up the older boy as he fainted, making sure that his masked offered air was being taken in with a listening check.  
"He's still breathing."

"Get him outta here then. I got her.." Kelly shouted. He carried her in his arms. Chet bent down to stroke Henry's coat. "Good boy!  
*cough* You're such a good boy. Come on, Henry. Stick close behind us." and he rose to jog to the street. "We gotta get this little gal to Cap and some O2." his voice trailed off as he ran away from the dog.

Henry's happy grin fell. He glanced with a whine behind him.  
Chet hadn't heard his renewed barking at all. The basset gave a slight cry of pain and indecision before he loped for a second time back into the choking blanket of blue white fire smoke filling the tiny hollow around the big tree.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Johnny Gage was just handing the senora a very soggy tan Persian cat when Chet and his team fireman burst out of the yard with the two coughing children under their air masks.

"Over here!" Brice called out, waving Kelly over, "I'm already set up!"

Gage smiled at Marco. "Looks like her ride's gonna wait longer.  
We've more victims. Call me if she changes."

"Right." Marco said to Johnny.

Kelly set his little girl in a sitting position leaning against Squad Eight's rear tire. "Craig, she's still clear. Not bubbling at all. But the boy fainted on the way back. I think he took in a little bit more than she did. His words aren't making any sense yet."

Brice nodded, handing his partner a second flowing oxygen mask for Christopher even as he gave Vicki her own. "Understood. Bob, would you determine his consciousness level while you deliver this? Thank you, Kelly. Now if you'll excuse us. We've got to contact Rampart base now." and Craig bent to his work over the biophone receiver.

Chet rose in relief just as Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto ran over.  
"They ok?" Johnny asked.

Kelly nodded, testing his air regulator for remaining volume. "They're just fine. Bit of smoke but that's all. If it wasn't for Ol Henry here, we could've had a very different story to tell you."

Roy rubbed his nose around his helmet strap. "Henry?"

"Yeah, he found the kids and led them to my hose team, isn't that right, Henr--" Chet broke off. "Aw guys, I swear he was right behind me. I even told him to follow us back out to the street."

Roy and Gage didn't lose their smiles. "Well, Henry does have a mind of his own. Why don't you go check for him by Cap and the engine.  
Maybe he's already stretched out on the driver's seat getting praises galore from Stoker and Hank."

"Yeah. Maybe you're right. But keep an eye out for him, okay?" and he walked to where the white Ward still gleamed brightly in the sooty sunlight.

Five minutes after the kids and the old woman with her tabby shipped out code three with Brice and Bellingham, Johnny and Roy noticed Chet was still frowning.

"Kelly? Problem?" Gage asked the quiet fireman.

"Yeah. Cap hasn't seen Henry at all since he took off. Not yet anyway."

"That's odd." Roy said. "I wonder where he could be?"

Johnny rubbed his chin. "Any idea where he might've scented those kids initially?"

"I haven't a clue, Johnny. All I know is that he came at us out of a lowish bowl with those two kids hanging on to his hide. He had dragged them out of the worst of the smoke."

"He did what?" Roy said incredulously. "That's amazing."

"I know. Tell me about it." Chet's head bobbled.  
Kelly glanced around where Cap was talking with Captain Stone.  
"Look this fire's practically out. I'm going out back for a bit to take a look around. Maybe he's chasing spooked jack rabbits or something now that all the grass is gone."

"I'll let Cap know your 20." Johnny said. "Call me when you spot him.  
I'll round up all the guys and we'll help you herd him back to the engine.  
Until then, I think he deserves to enjoy a little fun, don't ya think?"

Chet's nod was small and uncertain.

Roy noticed. "Look if it makes ya feel any better. I'll circle around from the other side of the house, and I'll meet up with ya, ok?"

Kelly didn't say anything and he paced off, still slightly worried.

"What's eating him? You didn't have to do that, Roy." Gage said.  
"Henry's able to take care of himself. And he doesn't need Chet or you fussing over him."

"I know that and you know that. But why am I starting to get all nervous here? " Roy stated flatly. "He still hasn't come back despite all of Cap's whistling."

Gage's grin faded away into a frown of doubt and concern,  
"I'll let Cap know the game plan."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Roy DeSoto saw them before he heard them. His radio's talk button was depressed and over his mouth before he actually knew what he was looking at. "HT51 to all units. I've spotted two more kids trapped over a smoke pocket in a tree. A hundred meters south of the house."

The frequencies from Engine Eight and 51 burst through his channel.  
##Their conditions?## came Cap's voice.

"One little girl's all right. She's just crying. The boy with her seems unconscious and he's breathing with difficulty."

##What'd'ya need to reach them?## came Gage's question.

"Lifeline and belt. Bring the O2. I'm heading down." said Roy.

##A rescue party is headed your way, Roy. Keep in touch.## said Captain Stanley.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Roy put on his SCBA mask as his head slipped beneath the thick layer of fire smoke and he found the tree by its shadow and relative coolness. His shoulder smacked into it. Groping, he found the rope and headed up in a climb.

At the fork in the tree, Roy removed his mask. The wind was blowing fresh air off the ocean to where he and the two children could breathe it in easily. He pulled himself up the last two meters. "Hi. How are you doing? My name's Roy DeSoto and I'm a fireman. Can I look at your friend here?"

Becky nodded tearfully. "His name's Stevie."

"Can you breathe ok? Sounds like you're coughing a bit there."

"I'm ok. The smoke's not bad now. It was worse when that dog first came and found us."

"Dog?" Roy asked.

"Yeah, that funny hound dog. He made Chris and Vicki leave with him to go find us some help." Becky whimpered.

"You said when he first came by..."

"Yeah, mister. He started to bark at us again a while ago but he must've gotten tired of doing it. I haven't heard him for a couple of minutes since you showed up."

Roy placed that bit of news about Henry's possible whereabouts in the back of his mind for later. He pulled the boy's head into his lap where he straddled the tree trunk's fork. He found a rapid pulse in Stevie's neck and saw retractions when Stevie inhaled, pushing in above his collar bones. "Honey, what's your name?" he asked the sweaty scared little girl. " Your friend's doing ok. My partner and others are coming to help me get you both down from here."

"It's B- Becky. Stevie's got asthma real bad. He says all it takes is a little dust to set it off. I guess that's what happened to him.  
We climbed up here to watch the fire. I thought we were high enough. Christopher said we were." she sobbed.

Roy bent close to the boy's nose and mouth and smelled medication. "Did you kids give him a blast using his inhaler?"  
he said, replacing his air mask over Stevie's pale face.

"Yeah, Stevie told me to give him one."

"Where is it now?"

"It fell down there. That crazy dog found it and tried to hand it back up but he couldn't reach high enough to give it to me."

Roy peered straight down and saw nothing but solid gray waist high murk as the fire reacted to being washed down in the nearly extinguished house uphill with billows of steam. The smoke layer rose to caress his ankles. "Johnny! Over here.  
In the twisted tree down below. It's the only tree top sticking out of the smoke down here."

"I see ya. Hang tight! Chet and I and Cap are getting down over there right now. How is he?!" Johnny shouted from his rocky perch in the sunlight, looking into the shadows. "I've got a stokes coming."

"His breathing's tight. Asthma attack. But he's moving air. He's gonna need a bronchiodilator a.s.a.p.!" DeSoto shouted back.  
"He got some earlier but it's starting to wear off."

Roy cradled the stridorous boy against his shoulder, leaning the boy's head over it backwards as he monitored Stevie's condition and listened with an ear. "Just keep breathing Stevie. You're all right."

DeSoto heard a creaking rope and Johnny Gage's gloves appeared out of the smoke layer. "Gimme him. I got the stokes right here!"

Roy handed Stevie down from the tree by the back of his collar.  
Then he grabbed Becky and carried her down with him to the ground following after. He felt Chet tie a life line to his belt as he kept his eyes closed protectively against the air's sooty sting.

Then he was out of the tiny depressed clearing, helping Johnny carry Stevie's stokes up the slope to the road beyond.

Cap radio'ed L.A. "L.A., This is Station 51. Respond an ambulance Code Three to our l--" Roy's shout stopped him in mid sentence.

"Not enough time, Cap. We can take him in Station Eight's squad as soon as we've stabilized him. We'll be faster that way."

"Belay that request, L.A. My paramedics will be taking in a child with breathing trouble directly to Rampart using Eight's rescue squad."

##10-4, 51. Time out 09:32.##

Chet was peeling his air mask off, carrying Gage's unused medical gear to put it away, when his foot struck a heavy warm body.

It was Henry, lying completely still, covered in dark soot.

Kelly got on his radio immediately. "Cap, Gage! On the double! I found Henry! He's down! Bottom of the hill along the stokes line."

Chet lifted up a leg and felt the dog's stomach for signs of movement and found only a weak rocking as Henry tried to breathe. Reaching down into the dog's mouth, Chet hooked Henry's tongue clear with a gloved finger until he got it hanging out between his teeth.

Henry whimpered, choking on mucous. But then he woke up.

"Easy, boy. It's ok, I'm right here." Chet whispered, kneeling by Henry's face. "Stay down, boy. Stay still." he said, holding Henry's singed muzzle. Kelly glanced down and saw Stevie's inhaler next to Henry's shivering front paws. "You found this boy? Good dog. I'll be sure Johnny and Roy get it just as soon as you're squared away yourself."

Henry tried to wag his tail.

Chet took off his coat and covered up the nearly smoke suffocated station mascot. "It's ok. You're gonna be fine, Henry.."

Johnny Gage and Cap pounded down the hill along the climbing rope with the O2 apparatus held between them for leverage.

Kelly shouted. "Over here!"

Johnny knelt quickly, taking Henry's muzzle between his hands in a precautionary move to protect himself from a bite. "Did he fall?"

"I don't think so. Man, he went back for those kids," Chet sobbed, "..and this.." he said, holding out the little boy's tooth indented inhaler.

Gage ran careful hands over Henry's coat, looking for liquid. "He's not burned at all. I think that smell is just his hair. Cap, you got him?"

"Yeah." Hank said gently, taking over the hold on Henry's head.

Kelly said. "He wasn't breathing too well when I got here. Tongue was in the way."

Cap nodded. "Johnny.... think we can move him?"

"Yeah.. I'm not a vet, but he's not tensing up anywhere with me touching him like this. I think he's ok trauma wise. Sounds like his only problem is the smoke he took in. I think you can let go,  
Cap."

Hank did so, exchanging his hands grip for a valve mask on high flow over Henry's muzzle. He looked up. "Kelly, Roy's ready to transport the boy. Go drive him in."

"But Cap.. I wanna stay with H--"

"That wasn't a request, Chet. Johnny and I'll handle Henry and the little girl. Now, go.." Cap said, tossing Kelly the medicated inhaler Henry had carried.

Chet went.

Captain Stone came running down the hill with a short board, passing Kelly going the other way. "I heard. Is he ok?"

"He will be if we can get some good air in him and warm him up some." Gage admitted with a grin.  
"We'll take him to the V-E-T-S once we have that done.  
Thanks for the doggy stretcher.." he smiled, taking the kendrick board from Stone.

The three firemen slid Henry onto the board and strapped him in for the trip up the hill. Cap followed keeping the O2 mask nearby for Henry to use while he slowly woke up.

At the top, Becky met them, sitting next to Mike Stoker.  
"There he is! Our superhero dog! Is he ok?" as they set him on the ground, freed him off the board, and wrapped him up in thermal sheets for insulation.

"He'll be just fine, little miss. Although right now, I'm afraid he's got the same problem you do." Johnny said. "You both've more smoke than air in your lungs then what's actually good for ya so before we get to see a doctor and the vets, you both are gonna clean some of that bad stuff out of there, ok.?"

"Ok.." agreed Becky, brushing the hair away from her face and the nasal cannula she was wearing.

Cap held Henry personally in his lap when Captain Stone volunteered to take over the clean up detail on the house.  
"Stoker, we'll give them five on this O2 and then we'll take them in with the engine. We'll relay the girls vitals via radio patch. Marco, get us set to travel."

"Right, Cap."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the trip in, Henry suddenly went limp two minutes away from Rampart.

Marco tried to keep the commotion up front in the cab away from Becky's notice as his crewmates hustled to help him.

"Are we almost there yet?" she asked Lopez.

Marco was watching what Cap and Johnny were doing with Henry so closely, that he almost didn't hear her. "Hmm? Oh.  
We've a block to go. We'll be pulling up to the ambulance entrance. Can you see that door yet?" he asked the child.

Becky plastered her eyes and nose and cannula against the glass, peering out. "Not yet.."

Lopez thought. ::Please Henry. Don't be dead. Not yet.::

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Roy was hanging around Dixie's desk when Lopez and Stoker appeared around the corner with a devastated look on their faces.

Chet Kelly ran over to them instantly. "How's Henry?"

"He's out cold. Happened a minute ago. It's something past the smoke inhalation. Cap's with him now."

"Where's Johnny?" Roy asked quietly.

"He's with his patient in room three. You know he can't leave a victim until a doc gets there."

"Show me. Maybe I can do something.." DeSoto said.

Dixie, at her desk, overheard them. She followed the sooty firemen to the emergency entrance doors and out into the driveway beyond.

Her heart just about broke when she saw Captain Stanley trying to ventilate the limp basset hound stretched out on an empty gurney with a mask two sizes too big.  
She snatched up a pediatric sized resuscitation kit from a crash cart and tossed it to Roy. "Roy! I'll make a few phone calls! The doc at the animal shelter still has a link set up tied to our base station."

"Through the HT this time? That'll work." DeSoto nodded and he threw his handy talkie on the bed, tearing open the airway adjunct bag as the doors shut between them.

The firemen experimented and a baby ambu with hastily wrapped bandage tape around Henry's muzzle created a good enough seal for them to finally pump in oxygen. Henry's gums began to pink up once more.  
Roy could still feel a pulse in the artery at the point inside Henry's rear thigh. But it was irregular. "What?" he said aloud. "That can't be." he sighed, as it thudded erratically against his thumb.

Cap noticed, looking up from Marco who was bagging Henry carefully. "What's the problem?"

Kelly looked scared. "What is it?"

Roy swallowed, "I think Henry might be having a heart attack."

Photo: Henry barking up at something.

Photo: Four kids stuck in a tree's fork.

Photo: Chet yelling about something in the brush.

Photo: Henry down on the ground.

Photo: Henry with hands around his muzzle.

Photo: An old lady giving a sheet wrapped Henry oxygen.

Photo : Roy looking shocked wearing a stethoscope.

*  
From : Champagne Scott Sent : Friday, August 27, 2004 7:09 PM Subject : Fast Times at Rampart Base : The Dog Day Afternoon

Dixie McCall made the fastest phone call of her life.  
And then she glared the fiercest that she had ever glared at the back of Kel Brackett's head. He was just completing an in house phone call with the new resident assigned to the paramedic base station. ::Boy, I sure wish Joe could've been here or I wouldn't have found myself in such a ridiculous bind!::

Dr. Brackett finally rubbed the back of his head in sympathetic heebee jeebies. He turned to find the source of his chills.  
"Oh, no.." he moaned in warning at Dixie who was already batting her eyes diplomatically. "What are you up to now?  
I've lunch in five minutes."

"Nothing much." Dix demurred. "A single phone call. Just take it. Here." she said passing over the phone to Kel without meeting his eyes.

Kel took it as if it were a live rattlesnake. "Kel Brackett, Cardiology."  
he said into the receiver.

##Doctor Kel Brackett! Land sakes! Am I glad it was YOU that sweet young nurse found milling about the place. Now let's get down to business, shall we?## said the voice on the other end of the phone.

Kel buried the red phone line on his shoulder. "Dix who the h*ll is this? His voice sounds familiar, but I can't place him."

"That's Barney Coolidge. Don't you remember? Bah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-hhhh."  
she said in a fair imitation of a Pygmy African wild goat.

Kel shuddered as the sound sent chills up and down his arms as the memory speared home in recollection. "You didn't.." he warned.  
"I thought I told you I'd tender a three day suspension on anyone on the staff, including you, who brings the next animal of any kind into my hospital's emergency ward!"

Dixie didn't ruffle one iota. "There aren't any animals in here. I didn't break any rules. I followed your stipulations to the letter."

"Good."

"Henry's not inside, he's outside on a gurney being barely kept alive by ambu."

Kel Brackett's face scowled into pure steel and he ground his perfectly white teeth together. Already, the eggs from breakfast decided to sit like stones in his stomach. "Dixie. Now cut it out."

She cleared her throat, tapping her foot and calmly indicated the live phone on Kel's neck. Soon, Dr. Brackett's better sense of decorum among peer level colleagues finally won out over letting loose one of his legendary tantrums. "I'll deal with you later.." he promised voicelessly to his conniving head nurse, who hardly fought to keep a smile of triumph off of her face.

Kel picked up the chatting phone and said falsely cheerful, "Ah, Doc Coolidge. What can I do for you this fine day?"

Dixie smacked him on the arm for interjecting sarcasm.  
Then she rapidly kicked on the speaker phone to keep Kel at bay with civility as the conversation included any nearby overhearing sets of ears.

Dr. Brackett glared again at Dixie but stayed silent verbally when Barney realized that he had the cardiologist's attention back.

Coolidge gushed his needs. ##We've got to hurry. Now dogs don't have myocardial infarcts in the same sense that people do. They simply don't live long enough, even with their all meat diets, to build up the necessary plagues to cause one. Besides they all have collateral circulation of the coronary arteries..## he bubbled, ##..which allow the clots to "go around" an occlusion that would cause an MI in a human being. No, most likely this basset hound is suffering something congenital brought out by his sudden exposure to that fire smoke. Now what have you found, doctor, vitals wise?##

Kel stabbed down the speaker button until it clicked off back into phone mode and he parked it once more onto a muffling shoulder. "Dix, how much haven't you told him? I'm not going to look at that dog now, later,  
next week, or even next year! I'm a busy man ! And a hungry one who's over five minutes late for his lunch hour." and he turned to leave, forgetting about the phone.

Dixie caught the receiver as it slipped off its precarious perch.  
"Kel, This isn't just a dog in need. This is Roy and Johnny's stationhouse dog. Their beloved mascot. And he just saved the life of that asthma case you just saw in Treatment Two. Along with three other children's lives. Now he deserves a fighting chance! If you won't treat Henry right this instant, I'll find Stan the new resident intern and ask him to take over." She slammed a hand down on the transfer button which sent the connection from the animal shelter onto the HT frequency monitor board. Then she hefted up a handy talkie reserved for mobile communications meaningfully.

Kel Brackett stopped her. "I'm the senior physician here! No one is going to tell one of my residents to do anything." he groused.  
"I forbid you to do it, Nurse." he threatened.

Dixie's eyes flamed. "Ok. Shoo! Go on. Leave now for the cafeteria. I dare you.  
Bon appetit. I hope your meal sits well after you're done cause later you're gonna hear six full grown firefighters bawl like babies when their favorite mascot dies for want of decent medical care a hundred feet away from one of the best cardiologists this hospital has ever seen!" she hissed.

Kel's face twitched and his rage immediately simmered to non existence.  
He growled and snatched away the live radio from Dixie's hand.  
"Coolidge. Stand by. I'm going to talk to a paramedic who's been with the dog right now."

##Roger that, we're standing by. Both Laura and I.## Barney beamed through the channel.

Brackett sighed like a steam engine and bowled over half a dozen slow staff members as he moodily plowed out the emergency entrance doors as fast as his legs could carry him.

Roy DeSoto and the other firefighters stood shell shocked and rigid and there was only the sound of the hissing ambu working for Henry evident after Kel's stormy appearance. They all froze, locked eye to eye, in anticipation of Kel Brackett's wrath.

The blond paramedic licked dry lips. "Uh, hi doc. I got this Mayfair all set up. Dix thought of i--- Uh... Let's see... I assume any care will fall around pediatric cardiac standards. I got alligator clips for the EKG monitor since pads won't work,..a-a-and plenty of defib gel so a signal can get through Henry's...thick.....coat hair.." he trailed off as Kel Brackett's face twitched again as he took in the expressions of all of Station 51's men who were partially blocking his ambulance entrance with an obscene white fire engine.

"Dix.. " he finally sputtered. "This is absolutely.. the last time I ever-" he began.

"It sure is.." McCall peeped. "Thanks a bunch."  
"Here, doc. I got the paddles ready so you can get a quick look for the doc." Roy said.  
"He's ventilating well, doc. No aspirating." said Hank.  
"Starting to twitch in his tail even.." piped up Chet.

Brackett's voice rose in a level above the babble.  
"Everybody just... ShhhHHHHH! "

Everybody hushed. Except for Marco, who was being Henry's lungs. He kept counting.

"Get him inside here. And close the doors before anybody sees us.  
Roy, in with me. And get Gage in here, too, from that treatment room. Stat." ordered Kel, embarrassed when gawkers saw the patient wasn't a child needing a fast unload from the parked ambulance.

"I'll handle that.." said Dixie, dashing back through the automatic doors.  
As she sidled past, she landed a wet grateful peck on Brackett's nearest cheek in gratitude. "I love you, Kel. Dinner tonight's on me!" she squealed,  
slamming the ambulance door in his face after she clambered out of the Mayfair.

##Doctor. Speak to me.." commanded Coolidge's voice over the HT.  
"We haven't much time to play with from what I've heard.## came the disembodied voice from the speaker.

"I'm here, Doctor Coolidge. What should I do first?" Kel asked over the radio.

Roy stood by with his, as a backup source of information.

##Get me an EKG over the biophone. Now I know it already works,  
since you got one off little William the goat just fine last year#  
said Coolidge.

Kel's face twitched again as he remembered his acute embarrassment over the biophone when Johnny Gage had told him who the patient was during that little fiasco.

Roy's face flushed crimson.

But Doc Coolidge caught none of the theatrics. ##Now from right lateral recumbancy, place the monitor clips on elbows and knees. Put the negative on the right arm, the positive on the left arm and both commons on both legs. Got that?##

"Second nature, Coolidge. Same as a small child's."

##Right you are!## Barney said. ##We'll get him squared away yet.  
Now, send me a strip. I have a few theories as to what's ailing him and I need your help to help me rule em out. Oh, and if he loses that inguinal pulse, have your defibrillator there set to 200 J's at the initial, then go to 300, then 360 stacked if necessary ok? The cardiac meds are the same with lidocaine, epi and atropine. Just use a two year old's dosages in a Ringer's IV.##

"Roy, got that?" Kel barked.

"Already on it." DeSoto replied. He hefted his talkie. "Doc.  
Ringer's IV? How much to run in on the onset?"

##Best place for a puncture is the cephalic vein, top of the foreleg halfway up. 200 mls for starters. I don't know if Henry's been pulmonarily challenged.##

"His chest is clear." Kel said, listening to the still basset's sooty ribcage.

##Fine. Fine. All the better.##Barney dabbled over the radio.  
##Now.. what's your strip showing on your people zapper?##

Brackett's eyes rolled up at the reference. But he dutifully applied globs of conductive gel over Henry's shoulder and haunch and set down the paddle rims over his body. "I'm reading some wide or tall P-waves; wide or increased amplitude QRS complexes and a few short-coupled PVC's with frequent ectopics. Hear them?"

The monitor gave a fluting bell every time the comatose basset's heart skipped a contraction.

##Umm hm. I'm getting the same thing over here. Doctor Brackett, listen close.  
I'm trying to narrow down the field of cardiac problem candidates for Henry by being certain there's no chance of these three possibilities:  
an atrial tumor, that's hemangiosarcoma to you Dr. Brackett, an electrolyte imbalance, such as hypokalemia from breathing so poorly during the fire, or a splenic tumor to get to my original suspicion of arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy. That's fairly common in middle aged males such as Henry.##

"What's that?" Chet said from the ambulance driver peep window.

Coolidge heard. ##It refers to a recurrent or persistent arrhythmia in the setting of a normal left ventricular ejection fraction or an irregularity in how Henry's heart pumps oxygenated blood out to the rest of his body.##

"Oh, I get it." Marco said as he checked the flow of oxygen to Henry's ambu tubing from the port in the ambulance's wall.

Cap was hunched as small as he could be at the foot of the cot where Henry lay. "Want me to take over, Lopez?"

"Sure, my hand's cramping." Marco said.

Cap and he traded places at Henry's head.

Kel and Coolidge were oblivious to anything else around them.

Barney leaned into the radio speaker. ##Doctor, have your paramedic begin treatment with a bit of nitroglycerin paste under the tongue.  
Works wonders without the risks of Lidocaine. Oh, and have him wear some obstetrical gloves administering it or he'll drop into a faint when the medication bottoms out his blood pressure.##

"He knows." Kel said grinning.

##Let me know when it's been done. I wanna look at how Henry's EKG responds.## said Barney the shelter vet.

Everyone held their breaths as Roy shoved in some nitro paste around a hole in the tape wrapping Henry's muzzle with a cotton swab.

Everybody jumped when the rear doors flew open and Johnny Gage climbed into an already crowded Mayfair patient's cab. "How's he doing?"

"Got a pulse."  
"Not breathing."  
"Ruling out trauma specific cardiac injury." said Roy, Cap and Brackett respectfully.

"Ok. Gimme.." he said to Cap, taking over Henry's airway care.

Hank sat back down onto his butt, sliding his helmet off onto his lap and he just watched, biting his lip.

Kel continued his conference with the shelter vet. "Want a central line in to get a working blood pressure?"

##Nope. Won't help. There's already been some neurohormonal cytokines activation going on because of Henry's myocardial failure and continued limited cardiac output. The EKG's pointing to that.##

"I concur. Just wanted to see if your angle agrees with mine." Brackett agreed. "How about initiating some cardioprotection at this stage of the game while we're waiting for that nitro to kick in."

##Sounds good to me. Get him armored while he's still ticking. I recommend sotalol as a beta blocker to control Henry's tachyarrythmias. 10- 20 mg by mouth every twelve hours...## said Barney.

"But he's still unresponsive.." Kel reasoned over the radio.

##That's no obstacle...## Coolidge's voice bubbled. ##We'll use procainamide, in through his IV, in conjunction with that oral. Have someone inject half a mil for now. Slowly. Titrate it gradually after the sotalol's fully dissolved orally. We're doing so non push, because that beta blocker is a negative inotropic. Don't want to cause Henry to go into sudden death, now do we? He's fought so hard today to make it to nap time.##

The firemen around Brackett chuckled.

##Don't be shy about giving Henry some taurine, Dr. Brackett. Its lack can sometimes bring on ACM. Especially in dogs of the couch potato variety as these boys say Henry is.## Coolidge chuckled.

"I'm on it." Dr. Brackett grinned, injecting the vitamin into Henry's I.V. line.

A minute later, all medications were delivered and the alarming bleeps warning of PVC runs faded away.

"I think it's working, doc." Roy said, eyeing the monitor.  
"Henry's beginning to breathe again on his own. Listen."

Brackett did, tapping Henry on the eyelid to see if he blinked.  
He did, slightly. And then he yawned, craving more 02 as his metabolism sped up.

Johnny removed the rest of the encircling tape and left the oxygen tube near Henry's nostrils after he disconnected the ambu bag from it.

"Atta boy. Come back to us." he said, rubbing Henry's coat and head briskly. His ministrations rewarded him with a moan of anxiety as Henry muzzily came to. He was aware enough to make a face at the bad tasting medication in his mouth.

"He's gonna live!!" crowed Chet Kelly. "All right! I'll radio Station Eight's right now and give em the good news. And I'll tell Stoker to move Ivory off your door step, doc." The peek door between them snapped shut again.

The rest of the guys and both doctors celebrated. But Barney didn't for long.  
He grabbed Brackett's ear once more. ##Now for diagnostics, Dr.  
Brackett. We're going to need thoracic radiographs for his workup...##

"Chest Xrays?" Brackett said warily, knowing that no machine existed inside the Mayfair.

##Umm hmm and a packed cell volume test.##

"A CBC.." Kel said in affirmation, using his human terms.

##Yep..and we'll have to get good serum biochemistries to rule out congenital heart failure, thromboembolism or hidden complications in Henry's other internal organs. Oh, and an echocardiogram. I'll have to get an accurate fix on measuring Henry's true LV ejection fraction to map out future impact for a quality of life estimate for your fireboys after today's little misadventure. Least I can do for such a valiant mascot.##

"Doctor Coolidge..."

##Oh and we'll need more taurine to add as a nutriceutical into some new low salt food for him. If he's going to be responding with his crew on fire calls regularly, he'll have to get in tip top shape to prevent a repeat of this ACM crisis.##

"Doctor Coolidge!" Brackett stated more loudly.

##Yes, my boy?## came Barney's reply.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to draw the line with emergency treatment only here. My board of directors will have a hey day if I do anything more. I could be in serious trouble if any of them finds out I'm even doing what I'm doing now."

##Oh, I wasn't meaning for you to run the tests there..## said Coolidge on the handy talkie. ##You can transport Henry here to me so my staff and I can do it. After all, you're already conveniently inside of an ambulance.  
That was very clever of your ER nurse to think of doing that ahead of time.##

Brackett's ears began to steam.

"Doc, I know you skipped your lunch in order to help us out. " said Hank.  
"Tell you what, you've a very large, very loud, fire engine at your disposal to scatter any traffic out of your way going to the shelter and back again.  
Please stay and help us with Henry until Coolidge takes over. Deal?"

And he held out a sooty, grimy hand.

Brackett just stared at it, feeling very outmaneuvered and outnumbered.

'I'm coming along, too." said Dixie from the peek window. "I'm the designated driver of this outfit.." she said, wearing street clothes.  
"Hang on." and she flipped on the Mayfair's reds.

"Oh, no you're not." Kel boomed, immediately apologizing to the dog when Henry sat up in surprise. Henry bolted for Roy's arms while the others struggled to keep him from tangling his I.V.

"Oh, yes I can. My shift ended for the day five minutes ago." Dixie McCall stuck her tongue out at her now powerless superior. "So sit down,  
buckle in and play doctor quietly, Kel. The sooner we leave, the sooner we'll get back."

"You aren't authorized to drive a Mayfair!"

"Wanna bet? You authorized me as a field training nurse. The state says I can. Hang on.."

And they were off under the vanguard of the white engine. Stoker belligerently rendered the street clear before them with a healthy chorus of horn blasts and sirens.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Dixie during a do it or die glare.

Photo: A baby African Pygmy goat.

Photo: An angry manipulated Kel Brackett.

Photo: Roy and Johnny in an empty Mayfair.

Photo: A close up of Barney, "Doc" Coolidge, the shelter veterinarian.

Photo: Henry sitting in close up.

From: "Roxy Dee" Date: Wed Sep 1, 2004 3:46 pm Subject: The Shriek Box~~

Johnny Gage came whistling into the kitchen area and helped himself to a hefty portion of Dale's Everything deep dish pizza which was Cap's meal offering for his turn at KP food detail. "Must be Thursday afternoon." he said to no one in particular, "I can set my watch by when the delivery guy come with these."

"Speak for yourself." Roy said, overhearing from his checkers match with Marco Lopez by the television table. "I'm getting so good at guessing time of day by activity that I can guess the actual minute by that pizza's physical temperature.." he bemoaned. "It's exactly 2:15 in the afternoon." he sniffed.

Gage huffed in amusement around a food stuffed cheek.  
"Huh, don't blame me for the slow week we've had. Blame dispatch and headquarters. They're so worried that we'll scuff up the crown jewel of the fire department that all we've been given is medical calls."

"I wouldn't say Ivory is the crown jewel of the department." said Stoker from where he was doing the dishes. "She's more like.  
a backup while we're waiting for Ol Red to finish up in the repair shop."

"Believe what you like. I'm just hoping you guys aren't bored and all with being support O2 and bandaid backups for Roy and I when we do get out of the station.." he emphasized.

"Thing's balance out, Gage. Give it time. It always does. " Hank said from where he was working on a miniature ship in a bottle model he was working on. "I don't know about you. But I'm enjoying the light week of duty. I haven't seen a stretch like this since Woodstock weekend."

The guys laughed.

"Well, at least we're getting in some good hobby time." Johnny decided.  
Then Gage suffered a bout of deja vu when he spied Chet Kelly bent with industry over the same pile of gadetry and wiring that he had been working upon on the day that Ivory the white engine had arrived.

Being sly, he walked slowly and silent past Kelly so he could get a good eyeful without being caught prying his nose into Chet's self professed secret invention again. Johnny spied a new device that looked for all the world like a mini handy talkie with a large red light attached to its face and a very long radio antennae, longer than what the Battalion Chiefs used on their high powered HTs at a fire scene.

Barely reining in an unbearable curiosity, Gage sidled away from the table to sit by Henry on the couch to check his remote EKG monitor on the harness he was wearing around his torso.  
The holster was about to send a cardiac reading to Doc Coolidge at the animal shelter.

Roy noticed and excused himself from his game. "I'll be right back, Marco. This'll only take a sec."

"Fine by me. I thought it was time for Henry's betablocker pill."

"Nah, that's at three. Forty five minutes from now." DeSoto clarified.

"Glad you're keeping Henry's rehab schedule straightened out in your head. I'm totally confused on what he needs and when still."  
Lopez complained with a smile.

"It's a paramedic thing, Marco. " said Johnny from where he was connecting Henry's canine EKG module to the new phone they had rigged on the magazine table by the brown leather couch. "To keep track of treatments and med deliveries. It kinda becomes second nature after a while. Though I'll admit, having Henry as a patient for this long's novel."  
he admitted.

Henry looked up and whuffled in excitement as he saw the two men moving to fuss over him again and he rolled over for a belly rub, making it hard for Roy to connect the phoneline feed to the transmitter.

"Hey you crazy hound.." Gage said, scrubbing Henry's ears.  
"Back onto your belly. Roy's trying to get you set here."

Chet fixed the problem by tossing Gage Henry's favorite huge rawhide bone without looking up from his busy project building.  
He announced its airborne trajectory with a whistle.

Gage barely caught the bone with which to lure Henry's attention.

"Thanks." Roy said when Johnny only glared back at Chet for the stunt.

The gray phone next to the couch rang. It was Barney, the shelter vet.  
DeSoto picked it up and set it onto the table while he plugged in the EKG wire from the readout into the module wired to the send only phone.

A few minutes later, the transmission of Henry's nightly cardiac record completed and Roy hung up the phone receiver again. "Hope the doc's happy with Henry's progress. I know I am. He's had no PVCs in four days now. I think he was right with that diagnosis of arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy on him. His heart's no longer acting like an M.I.'s."

Gage disconnected the holster wire from the phone and wrapped it up again into its bundle compartment on the side of Henry's EKG monitor harness. "He's eating fine, drinking even better. Heck he even went after a few of Stoker's ball tosses in the yard this morning, without getting out of breath even once." he said, playing tug of war with Henry and the bone.

Cap smiled from where he worked. "Of course he is. He's in the best paramedic firehouse in the whole county. I wouldn't expect any results less than perfect from my men on a medical patient that stable."  
he joked.

That brought up a question from Chet. "Hey Cap, are we getting billed at the station for Henry's Mayfair ride to the Animal Shelter last week?"

"Nope. Doc Coolidge found some dog loving sponsors at a local school to cover our costs. All it'll take is letting those kids visit Henry once he's back on a clean bill of health to get the money." Hank mentioned.

"Nice. How'd they hear about Henry getting sick?" Marco asked.

"One of the nurses walking by the ambulance that day saw us working on resuscitating him out in Rampart's driveway, took up the cause on her own through friends and relatives. And I believe that new medical resident you guys tangled with the day that old woman was burned was very instrumental in bailing our butts out of Henry's treatment bills, too."

"He was?" Gage said, surprised. "That's incredible."

"Yeah, Dixie McCall said that he felt guilty for being so new to answering calls at the base station that he wanted to make it up to us somehow for making us work her airway needs around him without an order." Captain Stanley related. "Miss McCall called and told me the whole story last night after we got back from that seizure call."

"And Brackett ok'd that?" Gage said, incredulously.

"Why not?" Roy smiled hugely. "Maybe that resident's on probation for endangering his patient and finding funds for Henry could've been Brackett's version of assigned community service as his unofficial penalty."

"Yeah? Well what about the official one?" Gage complained, remembering the risk he took that day acting as a paramedic first with Brice without a doctor.

"You know medical residents have immunity against incriminations for their first six months working solo. That old woman suffered no lasting ill effects." Roy reminded his partner.

"For that time, maybe." Gage interjected. "But what about the next time we get him on the biophone line?"

Roy shrugged. "We'll just have to repeat our findings. Twice if we have to,  
and...help him out. I've already talked to Brackett about having a senior physician standing by next to him when he does take another of our medical calls. So you can say that yes, I thought of you at the last paramedic's meeting, you know, the one you missed for having to stay here with Henry on his first night back from the animal shelter."

"Thanks." Gage said appreciatively. "Brice'll sure be a lot happier with that arrangement."

Right then the kitchen side door rang. Chet Kelly left his work table to go answer it.

Dixie McCall came into the station. She was dressed in earthtones and her hair was down.

All the gang rose to their feet.

"Hi Dixie.." Roy said. "What brings you out here?"

"Oh, I wanted to see my favorite mascot.. that's why.." she crooned,  
sitting down next to Henry and smooching his ecstatic freckled face deeply. "How are ya doing, baby?" she asked, holding his head.

Henry's tail thumped loudly on the couch cushions as he ate up the attention.

Then Dixie looked up at Roy and Johnny. "Got copies of Henry's latest EKG strips handy? Dr. Brackett admitted to me last week that he wanted to see how he's coping on Coolidge's rehabilitation plan."

"No kidding.." Hank said. "The way he grumbled last week, I didn't think Dr. Brackett cared a bit about him."

"Stand corrected, Captain Stanley. " Dixie demurred. "Kel's just a big softy at heart once he's been proven wrong about a patient. Even if that patient's cute, fuzzy and has big long floppy ears.." she said, smooching Henry's silky head loudly where it nestled on her lap in between her arms. "Oh, he's looking a lot better today." she crooned. She leaned over to look at the table side of the couch. "And you boys have stopped hoarding the spare defibrillator down here. Guess his cardiac readings are checking out?"  
she guessed.

"They sure are." Roy said. "We just sent today's reading in a few minutes ago."

"Well, I've got to go get to work. I only had a few minutes to spare."

"Here." Johnny said, scooping up the paper bag with Henry's old EKG strips in it. "Give these to Kel when you see him. We'll pick them back up again next rescue call."

"I'll do that. Thanks, fellas." Dixie said, leaving back out the side door and waving.

"Wow, Dixie came all the way out here from her apartment to see Ol Henry?" Gage said.

Chet quipped. "Yeah. Unlike some people I know, Henry's a real popular guy for a dog."

"Very funny. "Johnny said, squinting his eyes at Kelly.  
"So what have ya been working on all week? The guys and I are just busting out all over with curiosity over those things. Right guys?"

No one else spoke up in support over Johnny's admission.

"Ok, ok. I'll admit to being the only one. So what is it?" he pegged, poking a finger at Chet's shoulder in emphasis.

Chet Kelly looked up from the metal dust and oil he was rubbing off of his fingers with a cloth rag to see all of his crewmates regarding him eagerly for an answer.  
"All right. All right, ya nosy bums. I'll let ya in on it, seeing that none of you have the capacity nor the desire to put any inventions on the market like I do."  
Kelly motioned them over to the table. "Come on over here and I'll explain a few thing to ya. Only don't touch anything. Gage, that goes double for you.."

The gang gathered around.

Kelly slipped into lecture mode which actually suited him this time since he was so passionate about what he was working on. "You guys all remember the incident with Moreno two weeks ago. Where we went rushing into a vertical fire thinking that he was still in there, only he wasn't, just his turnout coat?"

"Yeah, I remember that very well. " Hank said. "Stoker,  
Lopez and Gage here took in more smoke than necessary searching pointlessly for a man down who wasn't even inside the building anymore."

"Exactly, Cap. That's exactly the word I'd choose. Pointless. Pointless and dangerous. We all would've been a h*ll of a lot better off if we knew as a department where everybody was at all times without tying up the radio so much checking in to central command every few minutes with position reports. That's always been real messy.  
Now I was stuck in traffic the other day and I saw a bunch of surveyors working in a ditch. You know the guys, the ones who measure how much the roadside ditches slip after all our earthquakes we get all the time?"

Everyone nodded.

Chet went on. "Well I had a long look at them while they were working and I saw something interesting when one of them got himself caught in a land sink by the legs and fell down. I was gonna rush out over there and help him get free when his crewmates, ones that couldn't even see him at all, suddenly arrived and got busy with their shovels."

"How'd they get there so fast?" Gage asked, entranced with the story.

"He sure as heck didn't use his radio. That got buried when the sand gave way. I noticed something when they finally got the guy out. The man reached down and touched something on his belt and I saw a light go off. Bingo! I thought. That's how he did it." Chet said, sitting on the edge of the top of a chair. "It was a sheer revelation guys, I'm telling ya. The whole way home I kept thinking,.. why is it that the fire department's always be nine steps behind the other guys? It's not fair. So I figured, we can make that kind of invention work for us, too!"

The rest of the guys scratched their heads. Johnny finally spelled it out for Chet. "I don't get it."

"He had a locator on him, Gage. Plain and simple. About yey big and attached to his belt with wires sticking out of it. Antennaes,  
I suspect."

Hank's forehead creased. "Ah, I see, a motion detector."

Chet nodded eagerly. "Yeah, one that knew that he had become still and sounded an alarm. That thing on his belt must have been some kind of personal alert safety system that kicked in the moment he got into trouble."

"Wow.." Marco remarked. "But how does what you saw apply to us, Chet? We don't work with land surveying, not often anyways,  
unless we're called to a cave in."

"I'm getting to that." Kelly said. "Just hush a minute and let me show you what I've got." and he pointed to the two or three black boxes on the table including the modified HT that Johnny had noticed earlier. "Now I figured out a few things on my own.  
A simple motion detector that works can run on a tiny 9 volt battery in a nested compartment here. Reads anywhere, even through smoke. I tested it in the shower."

"The shower?" Gage chuckled.

Kelly held up a hand. "Hear me out. Just hear me out. Where else was I gonna find safe smoke? Steam works just as well.  
I hadta test out heat bearing ability, too."

"Well how does a motion sensor help us as firefighters, Chet?"  
DeSoto asked reasonably.

Kelly held out a small box, "Here, put this on." he said.  
"Now go walk around and don't stop until I tell ya. Just flip on the little switch on the side until that red light comes on."

"Ok," Roy said and he did what Chet asked.

The guys watched Roy move around the table in circles.

"Nice invention, Chet." Hank quipped. "Now we'll be able to tell just how many miles we cover each week to measure up to how bad our aches become." he said sarcastically light.

"I'm not finished, Cap. Hang on a minute." Chet motioned.  
"Ok, Roy. Now go down on the floor. Like you were in a fire and a roof fell on top of ya."

Roy crouched down and got onto his belly. "Like this?"

"Yeah, like that.." Kelly said. "Now don't move for 30 seconds."  
Then he didn't say anything and simply pointed to the second radio like device that he had switched on that rested on the table. It had a yellow light that was blinking on top of it.

Very shortly the large talkie device on the table had a loud shrieker device go off that just about shattered all their eardrums.

Henry protested in earnest with howls of his own.

Kelly scrambled and apologized, turning down the device's volume control. "Sorry about that, guys. Sorry, Henry.. I forgot I tested this receiver outside this morning."

"Congratulations on inventing an airhorn, Kelly. I'm proud of ya." Gage said thoroughly unimpressed and shaking out his ears. He moved to the pizza platter again for seconds after helping Roy back up onto his feet.

"No, wait Gage. Come back here. It's not done cycling yet. Listen."

A speaker came to life on the side of the unit and started a pre-recorded message in Sam Lanier's voice that they all recognized as having originated along a relay from the main dispatching offices. ##Mayday. Mayday. Mayday. Detector number two has been activated.  
Attempt radio communications to locate a fireman detected in a horizontal position and motionless for longer than 30 seconds.  
May day. May day. May day. ##

Captain Stanley startled. "Wait a minute there Kelly. You mean to tell me that you linked that funky radio gadget straight to Headquarters?"

"No, Cap. This is just a side band that Sam and I rigged on a spare transmitter. We're off the official air. He was just as enthused about this whole man locator device I learned about, as much as I was. In fact, he was the one who was all gung ho making this recording and airing it from work with his manager's full approval." Kelly said.  
"We're unofficially calling these things shriek boxes."

"Shriek boxes?" Gage asked, chewing.

"Yeah, well I knew nobody would warm to the idea of naming them Kelly boxes. Especially you, Gage."

"You're right about that." he said without barbs.

Now the gang was mystified, when the transmitter kicked on a light on the belt unit that Roy wore, telling him that the message had been delivered to the tower.

Cap picked up the broadcasting radio receiver and switched it off. "Just what kind of range do your belt things have to reach the transmitter?" he asked in a hushed voice.

"I don't know, Cap. I haven't tested it yet in the field. Sam and I are still pulling the paperwork to get these testers approved by the chiefs to work at an actual scene." Chet said.

Stoker was frank. "Cap, if the bugs are ironed out, do you realize how many firefighter lives this device of Kelly's could save?"

"I'm trying not to get too excited." Hank admitted, peering at the device in his hand, marveling at the simplicity of it.  
Then he met Chet's eager eyes. "Can we do that live test again?  
I mean, is Sam ready for it?"

"Cap, that was a pre recording on automatic frequency set to channel nine. The same nine on our handy talkies. We're clear to use that channel for another three days he said. That's why he left the loop open when he went on vacation. Yeah, we can do another live test, anytime. As long as we're under Sam's home repeater tower umbrella. That's the only one he's allowed access to for this home project of ours."

"How does it work with water? I mean does it still work, getting wet? We are usually swimming in hose wash." Marco asked.

"I haven't tested them yet that way either." Chet said. "I only got to the level liquid mercury switch to activate on that remote announcement setup when the bubble hits either of the terminal brackets inside.  
I used old transistor radio chips to serve as triggers."

"Let's go find out, shall we?" Hank said, motioning for Chet to gather his tester units into a bundle. "Who wants to be the lost man to wear the belt unit? We can rig the reel line from Ivory for a light spray out in the backyard."

Everybody's hands went up just as the call tones went off.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Dixie hugging Henry.

Photo: Gang chatting in the kitchen.

Photo: Chet Kelly's PASS device.

Photo: Cap with a huge amused smile.

Photo: Johnny with his mouth full of food.

Photo: Chet confiding details to Gage in a close up.

From : patti keiper Sent : Thursday, September 2, 2004 10:33 AM Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] The Markers Move

##Stations, 18, 36, 99, 24,..51. Library fire. 12400 Washington. Cross street Milton. 12400 Washington Ave. Cross street Milton. Citizens report persons are trapped. Time out. 14: 27.##

Johnny Gage quickly grabbed some of Henry's dog food and wrapped up his pill and tossed it to him on the way out. "Early's better than later, Roy. He's set."

"Sounds like it's gonna be a hot one this time." remarked Chet. "They probably had no one else to spare for a fire call. Looks like we're going to be polishing Ivory up a storm come supper time."

Not having any place better to put them, Kelly hung onto the four shriek boxes and radio transmitter device, bringing them with him as he ran for the garage.

"Looks like." said Mike Stoker, throwing on his jacket and running over to the white engine. "I promise I won't get picky about the chrome."

Cap snapped out an order. "Gage, DeSoto. Follow in the squad. With all that paper, this is going to be a real fast fire with the heaviest kind of smoke. We'll need your spare air bottles and lifelines. Go call us in, Roy."

"Right, Cap." and he picked up the acknowledging mic. " L.A., Engine 51-A and Squad 51 are responding. KMG 365."

Soon, they were charging down the boulevard to the east where already a plume of ink stained the sky, adding a widening tail to the city's smog belt.

In route, Captain Stanley overheard another engine get to the scene. ##L.A. This is Station 24. We've multiple victims of smoke inhalation. Respond three additional ambulances and a sixth alarm. Fire containment's a priority!## called out that captain. ##Engine 51-A, what's your ETA on your aerial cannon?##

"Stoker?" Hank asked.

"Four minutes." the engineer replied over the roar of the engine and sirens.

Hank gave the estimate over the air and stated that extra paramedic gear and oxygen was arriving with Squad 51. He heard Craig Brice's entire station called out for the sixth assignment.

Then, they were there.

People were scattering like milling pepper from the stricken three story glass and steel structure and fire crews already on scene were hard pressed to get them clear of exploding glass. Cap pulled out his HT from his jacket pocket. "Engine 51-A and Squad 51, on scene."

##Station 51, Your time in : 14:36.## bookmarked L.A.

Captain Stanley spied a chief's car and he pulled off his mirrored sunglasses. "Battalion Nine, where do you want us?" he asked over the HT.

##Hank. Cover the west side, main entrance. Most of the victims are being recovered through there. Have your engineer rig your four incher from Engine 99 for a heavy attack and I'll send another over to man your ladder's water cannon. Tell your men going in to use caution. The roof is unstable. We've had multiple explosions.## said Battalion.

"10-4. Setting up on the western exposure." Cap nodded.  
Then he contacted Roy and Johnny over their vehicles' band.  
"Engine 51-A, Squad 51. Join the paramedic search teams with full air gear. Marco and Kelly will dog you on an anchor hose from Ivory. I want solid life belts on all four of ya, doubly knotted."

Johnny, Roy, Chet and Lopez all copied Hank's barked order over their radios and rushed to carry it out.

While they were gearing up in the shadow of the trucks, Kelly jogged over, passing out his novel shriek boxes. He clipped one onto the SCBA harnesses of each of them. "Don't rely on these at all. This is the water test fellas. Sorry it's gonna be such a b*tc*. If you drop to crawl around flames, tell Cap on channel nine and he'll reset your unit manually. I already got him monitoring the transmitter's band. The units are tagged one through four and will label themselves. I got three, Marco's four, Roy and Johnny's are one and two respectively. Got it?"

Johnny grinned as he fitted into his face plate and tested the air flow out of his regulator. "We're gonna do this testing thing around the chief?"

"What better way to sell something than to demo it up front, eh? Cap's all for it cause this fire's just begging a collapse chance greater than normal. He said that he'll take any insurance he can get. " Kelly quipped.

"Think these things are gonna work?" Gage asked Roy on the side when Chet was busy replacing his helmet and out of earshot.

"Who knows. Trial by fire, I guess." DeSoto smiled craftily.  
"If they don't work, it won't matter. We've more than enough fire crews milling about to bail us out. Hey, looks like Brice and Bellingham are on our quad's team. We're gonna be totalling six very soon."

"That'll be a whole h*ll of a lot safer. Now I know why I love Battalion Nine's style of command. You take Brice. I got Bellingham." Johnny groaned. "I don't think I can stomach Craig picking apart Kelly's invention once he gets wind of it."

"Protective of Chet's little gadget, aren't we?" Roy teased.

"You're d*nmed straight I am. What happened at the station's simply incredible. I think the idea'll spread through the whole entire fire department like wildfire, Roy. And not only in California."

"Gage, the raging optimist."

"I'm not the only one. Look at Chet. He's grinning like a kid in the candy store."

"About picking a flank man." Roy teased. "You're gonna take whom you're gonna get."

"Ok. Anchor's in." Marco said, passing Kelly the uncharged four inch from Ivory's bed already laid out from Ivory where Stoker had mated her to the Y line from 99's. "Mike's set for us. We're enabled for full pressure on demand when we want it. I just verified with 99's."

"Let's do it." Kelly said, getting ansy as he saw two more firemen leave the stricken building with multiple walking wounded for the ambulance crews. As yet, there were no criticals being found to warrant immediate paramedic attention. The team of six stayed on the job as a point to point search team.

Roy glanced back as the blocks and feet on Ivory were extended for the ladder's deployment. It was a soothing comfort to feel the bucket's looming presence hanging over all their shoulders. Soon, a high force arch of water stabbed into the fire's gut and split the worst of the roof burn into two weaker halves.

Desoto heard the snarling blaze's growl falter into a belch of steam. ::One point for us. I'd rather it rain runoff on us in there instead of all that burning chaff from the ceiling tiles.:: He gripped his ceiling hook even tighter as they approached the flame pocked library.

Then, they felt the perimeter firefighters shove them in the right direction towards the axe gutted main doors of the library. Roy sighed in relief when he saw that body sheets weren't dotting the sidewalk before lurid smoke swallowed them up.

Craig Brice's glove gripped Roy's shoulder. "To the left.  
I see some doors that aren't chalked off yet."

DeSoto nodded, giving Chet and Marco behind them a sharp signal, showing them where he and Brice were headed to next.

To their right, Gage and Bellingham branched on the parallel row of doors to that side of the ascending fire engulfed staircase.

Bookshelves and carpetting both, were alighted with hungry fire. Marco and Chet had their work cut out for them. They set their nozzle to the largest fan and snuffed out a path for both parties to navigate through. All the while, Kelly kept one eye on the uppermost story ceiling. So far, no smoke seeps or heat stains were warping through the grid of tin tiles above the darkened suspended chandeliers.

"Man, what a shame.." Chet shouted to Marco. "This is such a classy Victorian building. Must be a hundred years old, at least."  
"It is. We passed the foundation plaque on the way in."  
Lopez replied. He snapped back into a close attention of the way ahead when a gust of smoke visually smothered all four paramedics' locations. Chet drove the hose fan over their heads to push the smoke up away from them.

When it cleared, he saw five doors were open and yawning fire as the two teams kicked them ajar one by one beneath the stairway and fresh hot pink chalk marks glowed in the firelight.

Then he heard Johnny over channel nine.  
"Shriek Two is crawling, Cap. I think I see something!" he told Hank, monitoring the safety unit's transmitter channel.

Johnny didn't move until he saw the yellow reset light flash on his shriek box. Then he dropped down to the floor and crept under a studying desk. There he found a man,  
unconscious, lying unmoving on his back. "I got someone!" and he pulled off his glove to feel for a neck pulse. "He's alive.  
Cap send in a team fifty feet forward. Tell em to hook a left ninety behind the grand stair case. I'm at the third door."

##Gotcha, pal.## said Captain Stanley. ##They'll be there in thirty seconds. Stay inside. Roof's fine out here.  
Another squad's here take over your man's care.##

Gage shared his air with his found victim while Bellingham shared his with Johnny as they monitored the man's struggling breaths. Then the reply team arrived to take him away and they helped lift him onto a large firefighter's shoulders for the trip out. Gage let go of his carotid reluctantly.

Johnny heard Roy give out a crawl warning just as he had done, and he held his breath.

But that was all that came over the radio. No other person had been located.

"Ok, Bellingham." Gage gasped in his air mask. "Let's keep it going."

Craig had finally noticed the changed channel on HT and the yellow light flashing on Roy's SCBA straps. "What's that?" he asked.

"A lucky charm. I'll tell you about it later." DeSoto grinned.  
"Something one of the guys cooked up. Now let's get out of these study rooms before we cook."

Chet suddenly whistled, off the live frequency, and it carried over the crackling fire.

Immediately, Roy and Brice along with Gage and Bellingham jogged back to Kelly for news, who was still on the main fire fighting channel. Chet motioned for them to lean in close and he peeled off his mask. They parroted him for better hearing ability. "Second floor's been searched." Kelly coughed.  
"Two found and safely out. We've been ordered to go to the third. First floor's now clear thanks to us. You just searched the last final areas that were left. Ready to head up?"

The four paramedics glanced up the carpet flaming staircase.  
"Yeah.." said Gage. "That doesn't look too bad. Go ahead and hit it."

Chet gave a thumbs up and slid his mask back on.  
Kelly and Marco braced themselves and swathed the wide wooden rail staircase with cold water, snuffing the fire stripe they saw burning there until they were replaced with steaming curls.

They all jumped with a bookshelf from the second story fell over the loft rail and down to their level. Chet hit that, too, to keep their reverse escape route open.

Johnny and Roy poled checked each stair's surface as they climbed to test for weak spots. But there weren't any. They rose past the second floor. Then they wrapped up to the third.

A set of ornate wooden doors greeted them at the top.  
Brice, in the front of the team, peeled off his glove and felt the door for heat.

An explosion blasted them backwards and set Craig's hand on fire because he was reaching for the still cool door handle.

All six firemen went down. And just as quickly, they got up again to beat back the fire in the doors with an aggressive water stream.

Gage and DeSoto and Bellingham dragged Craig into the raining hose water to drench him down thoroughly. After a delay,  
Brice began to yell when he realized that he'd been burned.

Gage whipped off his mask and grabbed Brice's shoulders.  
"Craig. *cough* Let me see you. How's your face? How's your face?  
Is it ok?"

Brice nodded, moaning. Finally he relaxed his arm enough for Johnny to check his left hand. "Second degree on most, Craig. Third only on your thumb. No, quit fighting me. We've got to keep it under the water. We gotta get the heat out of it."

Chet Kelly shouted. "How is he? Is everyone else ok?"

Roy replied. "We're fine. It's Brice's hand. Flame caught it just when he went for the door handle."

"Shut them back up again. Steam'll from the water I just sent in will knock out all the fire in the room. Nobody's still alive in there. It's too hot." Kelly said.

Roy swept an eye down to all the 51 gang's shriek boxes. They were still showing steady red. ::Functioning, despite a bath. Second point for us.:: he thought.

Marco Lopez was watching the ceiling above them grow molten."I'm seeing some sag. Let's hug a wall guys. Now.  
We'll have to find another way out of here with him."

The six firemen dashed with Brice supported between to the nearest wall, just as heavy pre-flash smoke descended to below their knees.

"It's gonna go!" Gage shouted, looking up towards the roof.

"Yeah, but which part?" DeSoto asked, gasping. "I can't see anything."

Chet Kelly gripped all of their shoulders. "I've got an idea.  
Gimme your shriek boxes."

"What are you doing?" Johnny said.

"Hear me out, Johnny. I'm gonna use em as markers. There are four pillars in the room, one in each quadrant of a square around the room, remember? I'm gonna put a shriek on each pillar and then we'll wait until it's over right here, where we're safer. The ones that finally holler after things are done is where the ceiling came down. Cap can tell us which ones went off! Then we'll be able to get out through the spot that's still showing shriek quiet. We won't need to see where we're going."

"*Cough* I just hope to G*d you don't get them mixed up, Chet. Or we're bacon. One. Two. Three. Four. North. South. East. West."  
Gage suggested.

"I'm way ahead of you, man." Chet said, crawling away from the others on his life line with the four shriek boxes in his hands.

Roy radioed to the outside on channel nine. "Cap. We're gonna sit through a flash. Looks like the ceiling's gonna cave centrally."

##Get out of there!##

"We can't. Not yet. Brice's injured and we'll be too slow to reach the entry doors. We're along an exterior wall that's safe enough and we've got a plan, now listen close..." Kelly gasped, taking a breath of air out of his loose dangling mask.

A low growling rumble made the ceiling fire ripple and the monster backflash finally came.

All five firemen fell onto Chet's rope as a furnace hot belch of fire rolled low over their backs. Marco lifted it away from them with the upturned hose water fan as it passed by, yelling in defiance.

Then it was over and the smoke thinned and lessened.

"Chet!" Gage called, tugging on the rope snaking across the floor. His grip on it was tugged back. Twice. Gage smiled. "He's all right out there."

"Thank God. " Bellingham said, holding Brice's injured hand under water where it trembled to cool it. Brice began to droop.

"Hey. hey..hey.." Johnny shouted. "Stay up, Craig. Fight it." he told Brice. "You're gonna haveta help us get you out. It's bound to be a longish climbing obstacle course out there. I'll letcha black out once we're outside."

"U- Understood.." Brice mumbled as his partner gripped his face to encourage him back to full consciousness.

Kelly crawled back into their arms just as the ceiling fractured.  
All six firemen felt the air gust and change color around them when all that tonnage hit the carpeting. The smoke went from orange brown to gray black and the temperature dropped by dozens of degrees.

Chet pulled up his legs to his knees as a main beam from the ceiling bounced on top of where he had just scrambled.  
"OH, that was too close.. Ahh. I hate this job! " A few breaths later,  
he delivered what they all wanted to hear. "It's done guys. Got em in place. Keep an ear out on that HT band on nine."

Soon, Hank Stanley's voice called out shakily over the HT. ##Kelly, Units one, four and three are barking. Your butts intact in there?##

"10-4. All six souls. Gotcha. Moving out to the south. Thanks for the info, Cap. I owe you more than one. "

##Quite the reverse, pal.## said a very relieved Captain Stanley.

Roy added onto Chet's transmission. "Craig's going shocky. We'd appreciate some med gear to use when we get out there. It's Brice's hand and he's suffering possible explosive impact effects."

##Consider it done.##

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto finished loading up Craig Brice into the ambulance and into Bellingham's transporting care.  
The groggy paramedic had checked clear of any internal injuries and was only on light O2 with just a precautionary I.V. His hand was badly burned but they all thought it would prove fully salvagable in a few months time.

The 51 gang watched his Mayfair depart.

Then Captain Stanley set a supporting glove on Chet Kelly's shoulder. "I'm sorry your pet project had to burn. But you sacrificed them for a very good cause. That was one of the smartest ideas I've ever heard come out of your lips, Chet."

"Thanks, Cap. I appreciate it."

"So do I. " said Gage as he and Roy cleaned up where Brice had been treated to get set for the next walking victim from the fire.

"What shall I do with this?" Cap asked Chet, holding up the shriek box tower transmitter.

"Give it here. I'll give it to Sam next time I see him. Maybe he can put it up on his fireplace mantle or something as a souvenir. I'm done playing the mad inventor. But it sure was nice while it lasted."  
he grinned, rubbing some soot off of his face.

"There's always next time, Chet. Those shrieking things were a sound idea." Gage smiled. "Promise me that you won't give up on it entirely?"

Chet studied the ground with disappointment showing bright on his weary and flushed face.

"There's always someday." Roy reassured, laying along side Johnny's remark.

"Yeah, someday I guess." Chet Kelly sighed, then he looked up at the smouldering gutted building thoughtfully and a sparkle returned to his gray blue eyes.  
"Maybe when I'm older. And grayer."

"There's the ticket." Johnny quipped, turning to greet their next victim being helped to walk by the strong arms of Vince Howard, the policeman.  
"How does it feel to be a future millionaire, Chet?"

"Don't know. I've got too much soot in my eyes to even think about it. Right now, the only thing I can picture is a hot shower, a soft bed, and maybe a rivetting chess match for later. Are you game? I'm officially challenging you."

"Right after I win my match against Roy." said Johnny.

"You're on."

FIN

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Photo: Johnny and Roy in air bottles, tense, looking at a fire.

Photo: Chet in firefighting gear with another fireman.

Photo: A factory fire view from over the hood of the squad.

Photo: Brice and Roy looking at each other in the squad.

Photo: The whole gang climbing around after a roof collapse.

Photo: Cap and the whole gang grinning in turnout.

Photo: Gage on the biophone in smoke.

Photo: Chet and Roy and Johnny recreating at the station.

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